I recently returned from an annual meeting with agricultural association representatives from across the country and learned all eyes are following the outcome of California’s Prop 37 – a voter initiative on the November ballot that aims to include labeling “warnings” to consumers that products so tagged are made with genetically engineered (GE) ingredients.

I call it a “warning” because the general public – which has been brainwashed by green activists into believing GE crops are unnatural “Frankenfoods” – will likely avoid buying these products even though the American Medical Association endorses their consumption and believes there’s no material difference between GE foods and unmodified foods.

The annual meeting – this year held in the once wild and wooly Old West town of Deadwood in the Black Hills of South Dakota – brings association representatives together to compare notes on hot-button agricultural issues affecting them in their respective states. This year California’s Prop 37 took center stage.

“There are as many as 20 states this year with similar labeling bills on their ballots,” said Abe Basu, of the Biotechnology Industry Organization based in Washington, D.C. Basu pointed out that what sets Prop 37 apart from the rest is it is just not a labeling regulation, but impacts various foods now sold as having “natural” ingredients. And he noted that such GE labeling does in no way improve the nutritional needs and benefits of the food being sold. “If passed, this measure is going to result in endless lawsuits being filed and will force companies and growers to keep mounds of additional records in the likely event they eventually will get sued. It’s going to be a field day for lawyers.”

Heather Hansen, executive director of Washington Friends of Farms and Forests, added that her state is watching the outcome of California’s initiative because if it passes, activists in Washington state promise to champion a future ballot measure there.

Several recent media polls have measured voter opinion on Prop 37 and a majority of potential voters say they “want to know what is in their foods” and that this information should not be kept secret. This is fair enough; however, Prop 37 contains ominous tentacles that reach beyond simply informing consumers of GE contents. This threat is what makes the GE labeling crusade so dangerous to agriculture. No other state in the union requires these types of labels on foodstuffs.

Discuss this Article 8

The AMA is corrupted and broken. The USDA has been purchased by Monsanto and friends as has your mind. Prop 37 will pass and you will learn to live with it. The little people demand to know what is in our foods and they deserve to know.

If the state government oversaw compliance and issued fines for violations of a GMO food label law, that would be one thing. But it's law shops that would police compliance and the money they win only goes to them. They don't even need a straw man plaintiff under this proposal like they do for ADA compliance suits.
If this bill was about GMO labeling, fine. It's not and will not satisfy consumer demand to know what's in their food.

Prop 37 will never survive, even if the elitists driving it find enough ill informed voters to pass it. If passed, it rightfully will face an immediate legal challenge that ends up in the Supreme Court and calm reason and science will win out over this group of chronically angry food anarchists who live every day in a state of frothing insecurity as they search out their next target for campaigns of fear mongering among the public. They are the new version of the guy in the theater yelling, "fire"!!!

Why not give people a choice? There may be a lot wrong with the way the Bill is written but if people want to know, we should not be afraid to tell them? What are you afraid of that you feel you need to control the information given to consumers? Most probably won't care but those that do should be able to know and decide for them selves.

This article sounds like industry propaganda. If GE food is safe, why worry about labeling it? I'll tell you why- because Biotech knows that most people would not buy GMO's if they had the choice. They stand to lose billions if this passes and they are quaking in their loafers.

Almost every European country labels GMO ingredients. Heck, organic has to label and it is by far safer than conventional, not to mention GMO.

The real issue here is farmers' sovereignty. The hidden agenda of the Biotech Seed division is to patent the genes in the seeds, so farmers cannot save them without paying the companies. This is the biggest threat- the control of our food (seed) supply by industrial ag. This is about as un-American as communism.

I get a good laugh everytime someone dismisses an article as propaganda because it does not fall in line with their beliefs. Did you even read the article? The fear is not about consumers refusing to buy GM foods (as they already have the choice not to buy it by choosing organic), it's about the litigation nightmare that will follow with Prop 37's passing. Frivolous lawsuits, sure to be abound, which will destroy the small farmer or grocer who can't afford to wage a legal battle. The biggest threat to agriculture is small-minded, ignorant consumers such as yourself and the money-hungry lawyers who are both out of touch with the reality of how food is grown.